Arizona Day 9

Horseshoe Bend was pretty cool. 

We spent the night in Page, Arizona, before loading up the van for the last time. We weren’t quite ready to leave, though. We decided to do a few last adventures. First, we went and got tickets to tour the Glen Canyon Dam just outside of Page. Then we hurried over to Horseshoe Bend, which is a famous hike on the Colorado River. Right now the parking lot is being rebuilt (probably so they can charge you), so we had to ride a shuttle over to the trailhead. This meant we were in a hurry to hike the 1.5 miles roundtrip to the river. We didn’t want to miss our tour of the dam. The boys are good hikers, though, and we made it in plenty of time. We even had time to elbow a few people out of the way and take pictures, though it is nearly impossible to take a picture that shows a person and the Horseshoe Bend at the same time. 

We had to ride a shuttle bus to Horseshoe Bend. 

The views were beautiful on the hot, unshaded trail. 

Seth played with the sand as we hiked. 

We really enjoyed seeing how the river made this crazy curve.

It was hard to get a great picture while staying safe! But we always prefer safe.

Dax was dying as we took this picture with the sun in his eyes.

Seth also hated looking into the sun. But doesn't he look like a cat in this picture? See the ears?

On the way back to the shuttle, the boys worked on saving the caterpillars crossing the trail. 

We made it back in plenty of time for the tour. The boys turned in their thirteenth and final Junior Range booklet, and we explored the museum. Then we started our dam tour. It turned out to be one of the most amazing parts of the trip. We walked right out on the dam, which is over five hundred feet above the river. They described to us the construction, which they claimed took enough cement to build a highway from Phoenix to Chicago. We learned a lot of cool facts, including that Page, Arizona, was created in 1957 just to house the workers for the dam. We saw massive turbines and cranes that are still used on the dam. We even looked out over Lake Powell, which took 18 years to fill up behind the finished dam. 

There were these cool dinosaur tracks outside the Visitor Center. 

Crazy kids!

The boys loved all the exhibits in the Visitor Center. 

Walking around the top of the dam was so cool!

This is an old turbine. Look how huge it is!

Lake Powell is supposed to fill up this year with all the water we've had.

Finally we rode down inside. At the foot of the dam we saw the two acre lawn, which cushions the dam as it flexes from the pressure. We saw the recapture pipe that pulls water back out of the sandstone footings to prevent erosion. Then we saw four of the eight turbines in action. It was really interesting to see the amount of power they generate. Finally, we took the same route back to the Visitor Center 500 feet above.

We loved being down inside the dam, too. The whole tour was awesome!

Mom loved the bridge.

Before we left, we walked out along the bridge that crosses the river. This bridge was built for vehicle traffic, and carries thousands of cars per day. The bridge stands a dizzying 700 hundred feet above the river. It gives a beautiful face view of the dam, too. This was a great way to finish out our trip. 

Glen Canyon Dam was a great stop!

We saw two Great Blue Herons along the shore of the river.

It was a great vacation!

We spent four hours in our car, with only a short stop in Kanab for lunch. That was a business expense, though, because it was written up as a restaurant on our Best in Each County list. We finally arrived home around seven o’clock, but it was another amazing trip for Utah’s Adventure Family.